New Default Opening Page and Comments on Catagory?

So you want your main index page to show only posts from one category? Try this:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/query_posts#Exclude_A_Category_From_Your_Home_Page

On my index.php, the beginning of my Loop is this:
<?php if (have_posts()) : query_posts($query_string .'&cat=-2'); while (have_posts()) : the_post();

That keeps category 2 off my home page. If that were &cat=2 (take out the minus sign), then it will only show entries from category 2. So if you replace your Loop on the Main Index Template, then you can have the home page only show certain categories.

Another way about this would be to use .htaccess. Here’s some info:
http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess6.shtml

So, in the root directory of your blog, if you make your .htaccess file read, in addition to whatever else is there, DirectoryIndex ?page_id=169, I wonder if that would work. Or, if not that, create a page that’s just a redirect to http://gatosblog.com/?page_id=169 and use that page as the DirectoryIndex page.

About your second thing, posts normally show from newest to oldest so I don’t get what you want to do differently. Right now, when you click on a category name you go to a page with entries listed from newest to oldest.

As in “Cool! I got it working!” or “Thanks for showing me more stuff I don’t understand”? If this is resolved, mark it “Resolved.” If it isn’t, ask more questions.